The present invention relates to any type of machine-tool, machining station or centre or the like equipped with a tool magazine, in which a machining head is able to be brought up to a tool magazine for carrying out an automatic tool change in the course of a machining cycle. In machines of the type referred to above, the tool magazine, which is, for instance, built in the form of a rotary wheel carrying along its periphery a plurality of tool-bearing seats, is periodically supplied with new tools as replacements for tools that have previously been used, for example, on account of failure or wear, or also following upon the need to change the type of machining operation to be carried out. According to traditional techniques, the operation of replacing one or more tools in the corresponding positions in the tool magazine is performed manually. However, this operation is frequently somewhat inconvenient, on account of the limited spaces available around the magazine and also entails safety problems for the operator. There is, moreover, the problem of installing a new tool in a correct angular position in the magazine, this constituting a further difficulty in carrying out the tool-change operation.
The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the aforesaid drawbacks by enabling loading of a new tool into the tool magazine or unloading of a tool from the magazine with extremely simple, easy and fast operations and with total safety of the operator.
With a view to achieving the above purpose, the subject of the invention is a device for loading and unloading tools into/from the tool magazine of a machine-tool or the like, characterized in that it comprises:
a protection wall, which separates the tool magazine from an external protected area;
a door provided on said protection wall for access to the tool magazine;
a tool-bearing slide, having a tool-bearing support designed to receive a tool to be loaded into the magazine or to be unloaded from the magazine, said slide being slidably mounted on a supporting structure outside the protection wall between an advanced position, in which the tool-bearing support is in a position corresponding to the magazine for loading or unloading of a tool, and a backed-off position, in which the tool-bearing support is in the protected area outside the protection wall for loading or unloading of a tool,
in which said door is connected by a mechanical transmission to said slide in such a way that a movement of the slide from its backed-off position to its advanced position, and vice versa, produces a simultaneous movement of the access door from its closed position to its open position, and vice versa.
Thanks to the device according to the invention, the operator always remains at a distance from the area of the tool magazine, thus guaranteeing his complete safety. At the same time, the operation of loading and unloading a tool into/from the tool magazine is extremely easy and rapid. In the case where it is necessary to load a new tool into the magazine, the operator simply has to position the new tool on the tool-bearing support of the slide of the device. The tool is able to control (manually, in the case of the preferred embodiment, which will be described in what follows) an advance of the slide from its backed-off position to its advanced position. Following upon this movement of advance, the access door to the tool magazine opens automatically, and the tool-bearing support reaches a position corresponding to the position of the tool magazine, in which the new tool is to be loaded. The actual operation of loading and unloading can be carried out in any known way. For instance, according to a technique in itself known, each position of the tool magazine can be equipped with an elastic device for picking up the tool, so that, when the slide reaches its advanced position, the tool carried by it engages, in snap fashion, the pick-up device in the desired position of the magazine, after which a backing-off of the slide causes disengagement of the tool from the tool-bearing support of the slide itself, which in turn can be equipped with a device for uncoupleable connection of any type. When the slide backs off, the door closes again, thus guaranteeing separation of the areas of the tool magazine from the external protected area. Likewise, should it be necessary to carry out unloading of a tool from the magazine, the slide is brought into its advanced position, with the tool-bearing support of the slide initially empty, until snap-like engagement of the tool to be unloaded from the magazine into the gripping device carried by the slide is obtained. Following upon an activation of a pick-up device carried by the slide, the next backing-off of the slide causes disengagement of the tool from the magazine and its conveyance outside the magazine-access door, which simultaneously re-closes upon the backing-off movement of the slide.
According to a preferred embodiment, the aforesaid door has two panels, which can slide away from and up to one another in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the slide. Once again in the case of this embodiment, the two panels are connected in an articulated way to two arms, set outside the protection wall, which have their opposite ends articulated to said supporting structure so as to be mobile between a first closed position and a second open position corresponding to the closed and open conditions of the door, said slide having engagement members co-operating with guide means arranged on the aforesaid two arms in such a way that a displacement of the slide between the backed-off position and the advanced position causes a corresponding displacement of the panels of the door between the closed condition and the open condition. Once again in the case of the preferred embodiment, the aforesaid guide means consist of a slit made in each of the two arms, within which a pin carried by the slide is engaged in a slidable way. Preferably, the slide includes a cross member carrying, at its ends, the aforesaid pins engaged in the guide slits of the two articulated arms.
According to a further characteristic, the tool-bearing support is provided with sensor means for detecting the presence of the tool, and there are further provided sensors designed to detect the operative position of the slide. The signals of said sensor means are sent to an electronic control unit which guarantees proper operation of the device, in synchronization with the operating cycle of the machine-tool, the operative position of the tool magazine being taken into account.